Australian JW, Jan Kikkert, confesses to burning car & house for $$$

This story means a lot to me, as Jan Kikkert is the father of the elder that headed my judicial committee, Luc Kikkert. Yan was a regular pioneer that was sent to Tasmania with his 4 boys to serve where the need was greater. He started an affair with a girl 40 years younger than himself. Yet despite everything that he has done, (and there is a lot of other questionable activities I am aware of that he was involved in) he had the audacity to come up to me at my father's funeral a few months ago and ask when I was going to come back to the truth.

The story mis-spells his name, unless he changed it for some reason. It also inaccurately states Jan became a JW in 2004, which was after the fires, giving the impression he may have become a better man due to his conversion. In actual fact he was a JW for many decades, but was in a disfellowshipped state at the time of the arson.

A 77-YEAR-OLD Blackmans Bay man walked into the Hobart Police Station last year and confessed to two major insurance frauds committed in the mid 90s that saw him set fire to his car and burn down his house, a court heard this morning.

And Jan Kikkart would have got away with the two crimes, Hobart's Supreme Court was told, if not for the ever-growing weight of the guilt he felt over the scams, which allowed him and his then-wife pocket close to $100,000.

The first crime saw him place an icecream bucket filled with petrol and a floating candle in the footwell of his Mazda 626 back in 1994.

The car was parked outside his Blackmans Bay property and before lighting the candle he smashed a window and tampered with a lock in an effort to fool police.

The car was destroyed by the resulting fire and Kikkart pocketed $10,200 from the insurance claim.

A year later and in need of funds to build a new home on his block of land at Blackmans Bay, Kikkart struck again, this time upgrading the homemade incendiary device used from an icecream bucket to a 12-litre drum.

He told police he and his wife had been renovating their second property at Primrose Sands so it could be rented out, but apparently they had a change of heart in April, 1995.

After telling his wife to take their two children out to the car while visiting the property, Kikkart placed the drum in the house's living area and turned off the electricity in case the insurance company refused the claim in the mistaken belief the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

A neighbour called triple in the early hours of the morning and firefighters arrived to find the house engulfed by flames.

Like the car, it was totally destroyed.

While firefighters determined the blaze to be deliberate police were unable to prove who was responsible and the Kikkarts received an $86,000 insurance payout.

That would have been the end of it but the couple divorced in 2007 and the newly remarried Mr Kikkart, who became a Jehovah's Witness in 2004, apparently decided he could no longer live with the burden of his criminal activities.

"He told police his first allegiance was to the Creator," prosecutor Yolanda Prenc said.

The court heard Kikkart's ex-wife, with whom he has been embroiled in a custody dispute over their daughter, is likely to also face criminal charges and Kikkart has made it clear he is willing to testify against her.

Justice David Porter remanded him in custody to consider his sentence which will be handed down on Monday.

Did he approach his ex-wife and give her the chance to go to the police as well or did he just land her in it? Funny how he didn't feel it was an issue when he came back into the truth in 2004 and I'm sure the elders would have asked him if there was anything that he needed to confess.

Also did he feel no remorse while courting his new wife? Did she have any idea she was marrying a criminal? If she didn't then that is pretty dishonest of him. If he did tell her, why wait till after the wedding before admitting guilt?

We have no idea of what other influences are at play here, but it sounds like this guy has no morals, should not be trusted and frankly has no right to be lecturing others to adopt his way of life - especially during a funeral!

It would be interesting to know how soon he will repay the debt to the insurance company.

In a similar vein, I recently tried to befriend one of Jan's sons on facebook - Tim. Tim is my age and inactive. He went to Europe, got married, but cheated on his wife and is now single. Yet he did not accept my invitation, but rather sent me a message that he was disappointed in what I have chosen to do regarding the religion. I find that too to be hypocritical. At least I stand up for what I believe in but he cannot even be bothered being involved in what he apparently still thinks is the truth.

I have endless such stories regarding JWs that I grew up with. It is amazing how self righteous many can be when really behaving in a way no better, or often worse than the general population.

panhandlegirl - I wonder what he has up his sleeve with this confession. Having his exwife imprisoned?

That is a good question. The courts may be more likely to jail a lady in her 40's than a man in his 70's. (Thinking about it, I think she must be about 35 years younger than him, not 40 years younger, as she was my age.) He probably sees this as a great way to get custody of the daughter so as to indoctrinate her.

It is unbelievable that a such a person has managed to find a third wife.

It seems like whatever they do, it's O.K. as long as they don't "leave the truth." And then they talk about how bad "worldly" people are..sheesh!

The poor exwife of Yan....she may not even have known about the frauds he perpetrated, or felt she had to go along with him. Now he wants to dump her in prison...."He's made it clear he will testify against her" but "his first allegiance was to the creator."

One possible theory might be that, Yan's ex was planning to report or disclose the fraud to law enforcement authorities as part of 'paying back 'for the nasty divorce and child custody fight she had with Yan. Since Yan would be imprisoned or fined for good, he could end up being a bad father,unfit to take care of the daughter. No one wants to entrust the daughter to a convict. Then come the 'final solution.' Yan might have got wind of the planned voluntary disclosure of his wife. As a long time 'good elder' in 'good standing' with the Watchtower, Yan confided to the C.O and thought Jah's guidance on the matter. The C.O opened the bible and showed Yan, to 'put God's things first' read it the 'creator' before anything else, then Jah will blesses you. In order to protect God's name, Jan would not be used. The 'creator' would. In addition, the C.O advised Yan to closely match the confession with the period of coming into the truth or a result of coming to the truth in 2004 not before that year when Yan was 'not a JW'

that reminds me of my nephew, I am remarried to his mother-in-law(complicated). I havent been a jw for about 4 years and his father(my brother) won't talk to me because I don't go anymore. Anyway my nephew won't let his daughter, who is 4 now come over because I don't go to the "meetings", but he recently got his car stolen so he could collect the insurance, very christian he is. Just a hypocrite, so many things they have done, I don't have the time or room to tell you. They are all just a bunch of hypocrites.

JWs who commit "sins of the flesh" and are then disfellowshipped "redeem" themselves in their own eyes by never speaking critically of the organization. I had the unpleasant experience in the 1980s of being berated by a JW woman who had been disfellowshipped for living with another woman. I had also been disfellowshiped - but for apostasy - and I had dared to stop and greet her when I passed her by in a shopping mall. She recoiled at the mere sight of me and said very loudly something like: "How dare you presume I'd want to talk to you. You're an opposer of the truth!"

I was dumbstruck by her barely contained anger - but have since come to see and hear that it happens quite a lot:

There seems to be a hierarchy of sinfulness with disfellowshipped JWs with the very worst sins pertaining to questioning the organization. It reminds me that even when JWs can't keep their pants on and commit sins, they play a game of "Well at least we're not as bad as apostates".

Poor deluded souls: Kicked out of the organization for their sins but still captive to it.